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HOW PSYCHOLOGY HAPPENED INTO THE WAR 1 

 ROBERT M. YERKES 



IT has been said that the application of psychology to adver- 

 tising rendered it respectable and that its applications to 

 war advertised it widely and favorably and created an un- 

 precedented demand for its services. The name itself seriously 

 interfered with early developments in the army because of 

 very common misconceptions and confusions. Psychology 

 meant to the average army officer something wholly intangible, 

 even mysterious. He thought of its methods as akin to those 

 of the spiritualist, the devotee of psychical research, or those 

 of the " medium." There also occurred very naturally serious 

 confusion of psychology with psychiatry in the minds of non- 

 medical officers. This worked to the disadvantage of both 

 subjects, because of their diverse aims, requirements, and 



1 The following reports present complete accounts of the various 

 lines of psychological service in the army and the navy: 

 Psychology in Relation to the War, by Robert M. Yerkes. Psycho- 

 logical Review, Vol. 25, 1918, pp. 85-115. 



Report of the Psychology Committee of the National Research Coun- 

 cil. By Robert M. Yerkes. Psychological Review, Vol. 26, 1919, 

 pp. 83-149. 

 Army Mental Tests. Edited by C. S. Yoakum and R. M. Yerkes. 



Pp. xiii-303. Henry Holt & Co., 1920. 



Psychological Examining in the United States Army (official report). 

 Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. XV., Wash- 

 ington, D. C. (in press). 



The Personnel System of the United States Army. Vol. I, History 

 of the Personnel System; Vol. II, The Personnel Manual. Pub- 

 lished by the War Department, Washington, D. C., 1919. 



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